Getting back into the Hobby...

[PaulS]

Hi All. My name is Paul and some of you may remember from a few years ago. Well, I'm thinking about getting back into the hobby starting off with a 55gal that my co-worker wishes to sell. As far as hardware goes, I think I'm pretty well set. However, I'm planning to replace the existing dirt substrate. I had pretty good results with Eco-Complete but being out of the loop for a while, I'm wondering if there are now better substrate choices. I want to avoid all of the newbie mistakes I made last time and start off right with this setup. Your recommendations would be greatly appreciated. For those of you who do remember me, hope to see you again soon.
Paul

[sns26]

I messed around with Eco-complete at one point. But I like aquasoil a whole lot better, even if it is pricier.

[krisw]

Welcome back Paul! I've used AquaSoil for years with success, but ADG recently announced that they're discontinuing their relationship with ADA, so it's going to be harder and harder (and more expensive) to get. Several folks here had tried and liked Fluval Stratum, particularly for shrimp tanks because it's similar to AquaSoil without the Ammonia spike. There are a number of other substrates on the market from Seachem, Brightwell Aquatics, Mr. Aqua, Cal Aqua, and others. Of course, I haven't tried any of them, but hope to the next time I rescape...

[Aaron]

Hey Paul. I was sad to see you go so it's good to see you back. As Kris and Sam said Aquasoil is used be a lot of people with great success, but it does come at a price and frequent water changes are needed during the initial setup. I haven't tried it yet myself, but a lot of folks like Fluval's Plant Stratum and it's considerably cheaper than Aquasoil. I think most people these days are not use Eco Complete anymore because there are so many Aquasoil knock offs.

[halak]

How about mineralized topsoil? It does take some work, but it is cheap and works very well.

[Cristy Keister]

I have a bag of Turface that I don't think I'll use. It's only $15 for 50#.